Surf Scoters

I had the better part of the 2nd half of the day Sunday to bird Kent Co. for county birds, and it was a good one. I had thought the strong SW wind and warm temps would bring a strong hawk flight, but 30 minutes at Fisk Knob failed to produce any obvious movements, so I moved on to lake scanning. Targets were terns (esp. Common and Black) and Scoters. Scoters aren't often thought of as a mid spring bird, but the truth is that the inland counties have one of their best chances of getting these sea ducks in early May. Amazingly, while checking Reed's Lake at sundown (after checking at least 9 other lakes throughout Kent!) I indeed found a pair of Surf Scoters, a male and a female.

Light was very sparse, and these videos were all I could get.

In this video you can see the spots on the female's face, and the white nape patch of the male:



And in this video the male briefly puts his head up at the end of the clip, after 10 minutes of waiting! Lighting is so bad you almost cannot see anything! The other birds in these clips are Ruddy Ducks.